Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

of Jeff Stem and Curtis Adams, both of whom had solid fin ish es a t Brainerd. Dou g Po len fin a ll y exo rcise d the mech an ic a l d emo n s fro m his new GSXR750 but ha d a rare fall in the first leg an d ran off the track on the last lap of the second while trying a pass to gain a few positions, losing one place as a result. Still, he not only moved up in two places in the standings to ninth, he also served notice that he will be a front-runner for the remainder of the series. Finally, Sadowski's team mate and reigning FUSA Champion Chris Taylor suffered mechanical p roblems in both legs after running up front in both, yet still managed to eke out a fifth and a third, which jumped him from 17th (thanks to unfortunate results at Willow and Daytona) up to 10th in the standings. A ve ry tight schedule of CCS races Saturday afternoon limit ed F-USA practice to two sessio ns Satu rday (the other (Above) Slow starts hampered Fritz Kling's (2) efforts on the day though he would finish with a second and third. Here he leads reigning champ Chris Taylor (1) and points leade r Tray Batey (3). (Left) Chuck Graves s its fourth In points after finis hing s ixth and fourth. NASB classes got just one) plus the Sunday morning warmup . Many F-USA and NASB race rs en tered CCS events to get track time. There wo ul d be no tim e for qu a lif ying, so start grids were d e termined by cham pionship point standings. Af ter fas t-mov ing fronts brough t heavy rain bo th Fr iday and Saturday nights, Sunday morning dawned overcast - but the weather cleared as the day progressed. RACE ONE Stanton grabbed the lead fro m the front row of the grid, hotly pursued by Graves, Sadowski and Ta ylor. Teammates Sa dowski and Taylor dropped Graves to fourth on the second lap. Zampach had the Triumph nicely placed in fifth for the moment, with a small ga p back to Kling (who got poor starts tha nks to a high first gear), Adams an d Bat ey. Polen, tryi ng to move up, had the re ar end s te p o ut on the en trance to turn seven, w h ere h e hit a p u d d le, hyd roplaned and fell. He rem ounted and pitted but did not rejoin the race. A t th e fron t, Sadowski and Ta y lor stalked Stant on, Sadowski getting by on lap five and Taylor two laps later. Sadowski g ra d ually pulled away from th e fight for second, building a th ree-second cush ion by the end of the race and ge tting down to a 1:40.9 on the last lap . With four laps to go, Tay lor's sp rocket be gan to d isintegra te a nd he s lipped ba ck, eve n tua lly winding up fifth and nearl y getting demoted to sixth by Graves. The action behind them was reminiscent of the intensity of the Wor ld Superbike ra ces at Brainerd. Bat ey and Kling were visibly on the mo ve afte r ho rri ble starts. Batey had passed Kling on the first lap go ing into tum one. "I didn't see him ag ain fo r a while," sai d Bat ey . "1 was back in 15th or 16th place - it was pr etty bad . 1 p assed the firs t gro ups of ri ders pr etty eas ily, and then of course the further you get toward the fron t the harder it gets . A bout the time it got a little tougher he (Kling) carne around me. He had a rea lly good run going - it helped me out. 1 was able to kind of tag on and just kind of go. We wound up tu rning some pretty good lap times - a 1:41 flat." They picked off Zampach, then Graves, then Taylor. Kling then zeroed in on Stanton, squeezed by on the outside in tu m eight on the last lap, bu t could not m ak e it stick - Stanton would come u p next to Kling on the inside going into the last tum. "1 held on until the very last second, which was a second too late, and I we nt a little wide." Kling said. "1 was in the wron g gear, went in there sideways, and he got me coming out." Batey finished a short distance back in fourth w it h Tay lor, Graves, Gl enn Sza rek, Zampach, Andy Dea therage, and Adams strung ou t behind him . Zampach lost se ve ra l po siti o ns over the last few laps becau se he felt a vibration in the Trium ph' s mot or at the top end (and lost 300 rpm on the fron t straight) and backed off slightly to try to save the motor . Bet w ee n the tw o races Sa dowski no ticed th at th e rig ht side of his fro nt Dunlop tire was tom up a bit an d took it to Dennis Smith. " Dennis said, 'Gee, you've got a hard co mpound o n!' 1 th ought 1 h ad a soft co mpound on - I m ight be get ti n' o ld! The ha rd tire, because the pa vem ent is not abrasive, it'll p u sh a nd tear. Ins tea d of overhea ti ng and getti ng gooey and going off, it tears an d goes off. So I chan ged to the proper tire and was able to run into tum one a little better (in the second race)." RACE TWO Once aga in Stanton nailed the start. but this time Sadowski seized the lead by the end of the first lap, head ing a tight pack which also included Graves, Taylor, Stanton, Batey and Kling. wi th Polen a short distance back trying to make contact. Kling. again scrambling to m ake up for another bad start, nea rly crashed in the bus-stop tum nine on the first lap. "I was trying to come up behind Batey and my rear end came righ t off the track as 1 was exi ting the turn," Kling said . "1 thought for sure I was goi ng to loo p it into the bridge. And then every time I looked around I saw a big divot in the dirt there. " Graves pushed in to th e lead o n th e next lap but Sado wski was having none of it and we nt back into the lead on lap three, forcing the lap tim es down into the low 1:41s. Tha t caused the pa ck to sp lit in to a pai r of th ree somes: Sadowski, Graves ana Tayl or follo w ed by Bat ey, Kli ng an d Sta nto n . Stanton was stru ggling with an out-o f-balance front w hee l: "Tum one was blu rry by th e time 1 go t there!" Stan ton said. Taylor took second from Graves on th e next lap and began pressuring Sadowski, and second- placed Graves was qu ickly caught by Batey and Kling. Over the next few laps, Sadowski and Taylor pounded away at the fron t. Taylor goi ng into the lead briefly in the sweeping last turn on lap six . Once ag ain the action behind the lead ers was fier ce. On lap six, Kling passed both Bat ey an d Graves for third and began to reel in the leaders . As Kling ca ugh t Tayl or w ith th ree laps to go, Tayl or' s front fender blew off, a d istraction which caused him to drop back into a lonely third. Kling did not have enough time to try to catch Sadowski, w ho again won by three seconds. Also on la p six, Batey and G raves nearly collided on lap six af ter Kling passed them. "I was a little bit impatient," said Batey; " w h e n Fritz came around me in turn two and then got around Chuck immediatelv after in tum three. He had a pretty good pace going and 1 thought, 'Well, I kind of need to go along.' even though the race was kind of earl y. Chuck was riding goo d so he wasn't Iea vin' that m any openings but Fritz was steadily getting away. The next lap around (seven) I ha d a p retty good run ou t of tu rn th ree and I thou gh t I needed to ge t arou nd Chuck o r Fr itz would jus t disappear . I got into turn four o n th e inside of Chu ck b u t n ot quite enough th at he cou ld see me - 1 didn' t quite comp let e the pass is what h app ened. Wh en he ca me in for hi s line 1 w as looking fo r a p lace to go, a nd I wou nd u p m ak in g a little contac t with th e back of his bike with my front wheel and I wound up running out throu gh the swa mp (o u tsi de tu rn fo ur) ." H e reentered the race alone in seventh. As if that were not enough, Polen also had an off-track experience when he and Stanton came together o n the last lap. Stanton was side by side with Graves on the outside, battling for fo urth, when Polen tried to go between them en tering tum four . Realizing he could not make it, he tried to back out as Stanton folded in. Polen's fro nt ti re rubberized Stanton's tail section and Polen ran off the track, costing him one position as Batey went by during this excursion. Behin d Polen and alone in eigh th came Deatherage, followed by Ad ams an d Zampach, easing the ailing Triumph hom e 10th. Afterward, Sado wski said, "I found a fast wa y through tum tw o and it wasn't until 1 pa ssed Chris (Taylo r) and Chu ck (Gra ves) th at they re ali z ed that you could ru n through the inside th ere. So 1 got a head sta rt find ing the wa y through the oil and that really helped me get out in fron t. Chris was running it hard in to three, up the inside, an d then he go t me here in tu m 10. I as ked for so me brake m arkers this m o rning bec ause 1 d idn't have any decen t reference points. 1 w as still learning toward the en d of the race ho w hard you could run in there. We've go t a GMD Co m putrac k chassis setup an d I'm still getting used to that. There's a wh ole lot left in the motorcycle that I've got to find. It feels really good to get back

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